[quote=SPL;119302]Paulgw — I'm sorry, though, that you were never able to get a properly-functioning NAV radio with hybrid-specific display capability installed. Do you have any understanding as to why Toyota Canada are not furnishing these in NAV-equipped Canadian TCHs, and especially why they cannot be retrofitted? Frustrating!

By the way, are you sure that the refund money you received actually came from Toyota Canada and not from your dealer? In this connection you might like to have a look at the "story" I related in my Post #36 in the thread "Cruise Control - Complaints Filed." That refund came out of the dealer's own pocket, I believe.

I'm using an Alpine "Blackbird" portable GPS unit on my car's dash. It's quite nicely made, and functions quite well, modulo some software glitches. Since the firmware is upgradable via a PC download, I think that they'll probably get many of the remaining glitches out eventually.

Stan[/quote]

You could be right to Stan as to who anted-up the refund. All my discussions were with Toyota Canada however the cheque did come from the dealer. In the end Toyota called me to say that if I took the car into the dealer that they would remove the navigation system and I would get a full refund. The dealer was anxious to get back the instruction manual, DVD and case so it may be they plan to reinstall it on the next Camry they sell with a navigation system.

With regard to why the navigation system does not include the hybrid trip information my guess is that Toyota Canada has decided to make navigation a dealer installed option, presumably so dealers can stock only non nav. vehicles and add nav. when oredered. Having made this decision they decided just to stock one type of navigation system for all Camry's, namely the nonhybrid version. This still doesn't answer the question as to why if a customer is willing to wait for a factory ordered TCH, (as in my case), why it could not be supplied with the correct TCH navigation unit.

Regarding the Alpine Blackbird GPS do you know which map database it uses? There seems to be only too choices, one is NavTeq and the other is TeleAtlas. A couple more questions does it announce street names? Is there a European database available?

Thanks for your input.

paulgw — The Alpine "Blackbird" uses the NavTeq database and mapping software. It comes with complete USA and Canada maps (including Hawaii and Alaska, as I recall). It does not announce street names verbally, only in text form. There is no European map database available yet. Indeed, it only speaks in English at present. There's no voice recognition. But it will play MP3 files from its SD card slot.

Stan